Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: fallacies

Author:Chaz Larson
Posted:7/12/2000; 1:33:19 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 7/12/2000
Msg #:18514 (In response to 18504)
Prev/Next:18513 / 18515

OK, agreed. They're worth more than a quarter.

It seems to me, however, that even a quarter is orders of magnitude more money than artists are receiving on a per-song basis now.

The problem with getting into the "What are songs worth" discussion is that there's no objective measure.

On of the songs that means the most to me is "Love" by Joni Mitchell. It was played at my wedding. I now own two copies of it; one on vinyl I bought years ago, and one on the CD version of the same album. I've spent about a dollar on those two copies of that song [about $23-24 for the media, 11 tracks each time]. I don't imagine Joni's seen very much of that dollar. If I sent her a quarter for it right now, that quarter would probably amount to nearly a quarter more than she has gotten from me personally thus far. If I had to put a dollar value on that one song I'd probably peg it at $20 or more.

However, there are lots and lots of other songs that I enjoy that aren't worth very much in monetary terms to me personally. "Mambo #5", for instance. If I had to pay Lou Begas $3.00 to have a "licensed copy" of that song, I won't do it. No offense intended to Lou, who is a talented and hard-working musician, I'm sure, with a catchy song. It's just not worth that much to me. I'd gladly give him up to a buck for an MP3 of it, though. A buck would be pretty close to the ceiling for me for an arbitrary song of no particular personal meaning.

So, before we get bogged down in a "what are songs worth?" argument over some specific number, how about if the model is a button that says "Send some money to the artist", with a minimal floor of n [$.25? $.50? $1.00?] and no ceiling in $.25 increments. Fill in whatever the song is worth to you.

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